How to Select a Cystic Fibrosis Medication

There are many treatment options for cystic fibrosis sufferers. These include inhaled medications, anti-inflammatory drugs, oral corticosteroids, antifungals, antibiotics and motility medicines. Since each cystic fibrosis patient is different, follow your physician's recommendations concerning what medication is best to treat your specific condition. In general, the medications available only provide treatment for symptoms. There is no known cure for cystic fibrosis.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Learn Your Options for Cystic Fibrosis Medication

1. Select an anti-inflammatory medication, such as ibuprofen. This form of treatment can slow the rate at which lung function deteriorates.

2. Obtain antibiotic treatment to fight infections. Antibiotics can come in the form of a pill, an inhaler or an intravenous drug.

3. Ask about mucus-thinning (mucolytic) drugs that help thin the mucus in a patient's system. This may allow blockages to clear more easily.

4. Ask your doctor about corticosteroids, which can be taken orally or inhaled. Examples of oral medicines are prednizone and methylprednisolone. Common inhalers include fluticasone propionate, triamcinolone acetonide or budesonide.

5. Adopt antifungal medication, which may reduce the need for steroids. Your doctor may help you select among several types, including itraconazole, metronidazole and voriconazole.

6. Take gastric acid inhibitors on occasion. There are several popular over-the-counter brands in your favorite pharmacy, grocery store or discount store.

7. Take digestive enzymes regularly with food. This makes up for the lack of enzymes in the digestive track that normally helps break down food.

8. Choose a motility medication, such as Metoclopramide hydrochloride or cisapride. These medications guard against partially digested food creeping up from your stomach into your esophagus.

Tips & Warnings

• Ibuprofen and other anti-inflammatory drugs are often beneficial because they slow the rate at which lung infections develop in some sufferers.
• Some inhaled medicines require the use of a nebulizer, which helps convert the liquid to a mist form that can be inhaled into the lungs. Other inhaled drugs deliver one dose at a time in the form of a metered dose inhaler (MDI).
• The drugs used to treat cystic fibrosis belong to several different classifications. Investigate these classifications at Drug Digest before you select a treatment option (see Resources below).
• Cystic fibrosis patients who take ibuprofen or other anti-inflammatory medication need close monitoring by their doctors.
• Because of their side effects (e.g., bruising, high blood pressure, and bone weakening), oral corticosteroids are prescribed for only short periods of time. Inhaled steroids, however, can be used over longer time periods.

Resources

• Drug classifications at Drug Digest.

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